European Trip 2015 - Day Thirteen

Up early again as we had to head over to Paris St Lazare station to catch an 8:20 am train, 15 euros each way/person, to Vernon. From there we transferred to a shuttle bus, which was eight euros each return, to take us to Giverny so that we could visit Claude Monet's house, garden and water lily pond. Three buses filled with tourists in all so it was going to be a popular spot.

Attempted to purchase a coffee at a cafe. They told us, a little bit rudely, to go down the back to the chalet for the coffee. Then the gardener, who had ignored us before, served us and someone else. Not a great start to the day and unlikely that we would be returning to their establishment. Would've made all the difference if they'd called the gardener to look after us instead of basically shooing us away.

Not sure who picked up whom from the street

 Wandered around to Claude Monet's house to find quite a queue. Looked at the nearby shops before lining up. Thankfully it was an overcast day as I had to wait 20-25 minutes in line. Purchased a combo ticket for the Impressionists Museum in town as well. Turns out that there was no monetary saving to be had by doing this though, just time. Miky didn't want me to purchase the other ticket.

Claude Monet's house gets quite a few visitors

 The queue for the house was long so we joined the queue for the water garden. They redirected this queue so we went back to the house. Large place with a surprising number of Japanese paintings and pictures. He obviously lived reasonably comfortably for an artist.

Huge garden. And the garden where the water lilies are, which you have to go through a subway to reach, is massive. Most likely took more photos of the garden than Monet himself painted.

Flowers in bloom

Monet's studio

A few of his artworks on display

Boats on the pond

The famous water lilies and green bridge

Picturesque

Beauty wherever you look

The water lily pond is huge

Delicate flowers in bloom

Water lilies

Poser on one of the bridges

Tourist couple in the garden

 By lunch time we'd seen enough. Bought a sandwich only as soupe de jour was not available. Walked to the museum which had heaps of Degas exhibited. Some recognisable and brilliant pieces - great artist. Miky thoroughly enjoyed her visit to the museum.

There was some confusion at the bus stop as the driver of the first bus, which was full, would only talk in French and didn't want to leave until it was the scheduled time. Caught the second bus and made it back to the train station with plenty of time for our train. At Gare St Lazare we did a lot of grocery shopping and some more clothes shopping. Back home for a rest.

Rue Claude Monet intersection in Giverny

 Left around 7:30 pm so that we could catch a 9 pm river cruise from the Eiffel Tower. Lovely cruise and scenery except for some loudmouth Aussies behind us. As we finished the cruise they started to light up the tower which we viewed for some 20 minutes before heading home.

The Australian embassy is well situated

Eiffel Tower in sepia

Alexandre III Bridge

Buildings alongside the Seine

The Eiffel Tower lit up at night